


Speaking in Star Wars

by AutiFics



Series: Neurodivergent Avengers [1]
Category: Avengers, Winter Soldier - Fandom, civil war - Fandom
Genre: Autism, Autism Acceptance, Autistic Bucky Barnes, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Caring Steve, Hydra Mentions, Sweet Bucky, mentions of aba, neurodivergence, neurodivergent avengers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-21 20:07:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14922014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutiFics/pseuds/AutiFics
Summary: Bucky doesn’t speak, except when he does.





	Speaking in Star Wars

**Author's Note:**

> Mentions of ABA-type programming

Bucky hadn’t necessarily ‘settled in’ to the Avengers Tower, but he was getting familiar enough with it to feel comfortable moving through the rooms on his own. He was still a bit frightened of JARVIS, who had been keeping a careful distance from the newest roomer, and he kept from interacting with the other people in the house as much as he could. He was sharing a room with Steve after several unsuccessful attempts at sleeping on the other side of a fairly thin wall, but of course the star-spangled hero didn’t mind. He was just glad to have Bucky back home. 

For a moment, it had looked like Tony was going to tear the Avengers apart over Bucky’s involuntary participation in his parents’ deaths. It had taken a lot of work with his memory-repairing equipment and a long conversation with their very own Clint Barton to bring the scientist around. The air between them was tense for a while, but eventually they fell into a relaxed truce of small nods and half-smiles. Well, Tony smiled at Bucky, who didn’t really smile at anyone except Steve. Even if Tony had forgiven him for the things the Winter Soldier had done, Bucky hadn’t really forgiven himself, nor had he gotten all of HYDRA’s training out of his system. 

Bucky wasn’t violent—on the contrary, he was almost scarily compliant—but the Avengers could recognize programming when they saw it. Every time he walked into a room Bucky counted the number of exits and the number of people, even if they were just gathering in the kitchen for breakfast. When he was alone in a room and somebody walked in he handed them a knife or some other kind of weapon so they could, he said, control him if they needed to. When he caught himself tapping his foot or flapping his hands or doing anything else that calmed him, his whole body went rigid and he sat with his back straight and his shoulders tense. Steve had told him that he didn’t have to do any of that, because the people in the tower didn’t care if he followed HYDRA’s rules, but Bucky had given a half-hearted shrug before trying to explain that it was pretty much drilled into his brain. He didn’t do a very good job explaining it, though, because sometimes his words didn’t come out the way he wanted to and sometimes Steve’s friends weren’t very good at listening and he was left more frustrated than when he had tried to talk. He had picked up some Sign Language from Clint and Nat, but he didn’t always like to use it. 

“Maybe he should be staying somewhere else,” Rhodey had suggested once Bucky had fallen asleep after a meltdown that he had tried to keep to himself. 

“Where would he go?” Steve countered a bit defensively, “Everyone else he knew is dead.”

“Maybe a hospital would be better for Mr. Barnes,” Vision weighed in, “A hospital geared towards treating psychiatric disorders linked to traumatic events. They would be able to help him more than you can, Captain Rogers.”

“No they couldn’t,” Clint commented heavily from his place on the couch, “When you come back from something like that—having your mind controlled—you need familiar faces.”

That settled it, since the only other person who had experienced mind control was Bruce, who claimed not to remember most of his ordeal. Clint was the expert in that area (for once), so Bucky was staying in the tower. Not that Steve would have let him be moved even if every single person had advised it, but it was nice to have some confirmation that he was doing the right thing. So they settled into a routine that seemed to help Bucky a little bit, but he was still mostly on edge. 

———————————

“Bucky, time to—” Steve stopped talking when the arm he’d extended hit the mattress beside him instead of the metal arm it was used to. He sat himself up and looked to the side to see if Bucky had simply rolled off the bed, or moved away from his touch, but neither scenario proved to be true. Bucky was out of the bed and, as far as Steve could tell, out of the room. That was either a very good or a very bad sign. 

Steve closed his eyes for another second before sitting up and pulling on a light blue shirt to match his grey sweatpants, swiftly walking towards the living room. Usually when they woke up, the pair went into the living room, simply because that was where everyone in the house went when they woke up. Steve could hear that the TV was already on, which was unusual, because the only person who really used it was Tony, who woke up much later than everyone else. 

“You are part of the rebel alliance and a traitor,” he heard a deep, robotic voice say on the television as he stepped into the large archway of the living room. 

“You are part of the rebel alliance,” Bucky parroted back excitedly as he rocked himself on the floor, his hands clapping lightly against each other. “And a traitor.”

Bucky picked up the remote and rewound the TV back a few seconds before pressing the ‘play’ button (something Steve didn’t realize he had learned). 

“You are part of the rebel alliance and a traitor,” the same robotic voice repeated on the TV. 

“You are part of the rebel alliance,” Bucky repeated with more excitement, rocking himself further forward and then farther back as he continued clapping, “And a traitor.”

Bucky picked up the remote again, and again rewound the TV to the same place as before. 

“You are part of the rebel alliance and a traitor,” the voice said once again. 

“You are part,” Bucky jumped up so he was standing and kept bouncing, “Of the rebel alliance,” he flapped his hands in time with the words, “And a traitor.” He started clapping his hands together harder so they made enough noise to create the smallest echo in the circular room. 

Steve watched with a light smile as his friend knelt down to pick the remote up again and rewind the movie back to the same point, apparently not sick of hearing the same phrase repeated by the same person. Steve would have found (did find) it boring, but he did not find his friend’s happiness boring. He found that incredibly entertaining and comforting, so he kept his mouth shut to let Bucky enjoy his moments ‘alone’ with the TV.


End file.
